LIVE Iran targets bases and says US is ‘negotiating with yourselves’

Iran has warned it will strike USS Abraham Lincoln, one of the world’s biggest aircraft carriers, if it falls within range of its missiles.

The threat comes after a large-scale missile attack failed to hit the vessel.

Footage has emerged of the moment Iran launched a series of shore-to-sea cruise missiles at the Lincoln carrier, which was deployed to the Middle East to support Operation Epic Fury.

Speaking in the White House yesterday, Donald Trump said: ‘They shot 100 missiles at one of our aircraft carriers, one of the biggest ships in the world, actually. And of 101 missiles shot, every single one of them was knocked down.’

But Iranian Navy commander Shahram Irani warned the warship was under constant surveillance ahead of another possible attack.

‘The USS Abraham Lincoln carrier is under constant Iranian monitoring and will be targeted as soon as it comes within range of missile systems,’ he said, according to the SNN news agency.

Smoke rises from Kuwait international airport after a drone strike

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had fired a fresh wave of missiles at Israel, as well as US bases hosting American troops in Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain.

Tehran has kept up its retaliatory attacks on Israel and Gulf nations it accuses of serving as launchpads for US strikes.

Drones hit a fuel tank and sparked a fire at Kuwait International Airport, the Gulf state’s civil aviation authority said, causing ‘limited’ damage.

In Bahrain, the interior ministry said air raid sirens were activated, while Jordan’s public security directorate reported shrapnel fell near the capital Amman, resulting in no casualties or damage.

Saudi Arabia said it had intercepted at least four drones in the kingdom’s east.

The Pentagon has said it has reached agreements with BAE, Lockheed and Honeywell to boost production of defense systems and munitions as part of its shift to ‘wartime footing.’

Under the deals, Honeywell Aerospace will ‘surge production of critical components for America’s munitions stockpile,’ as part of a $500 million multi-year investment, the Pentagon said.

BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin will also quadruple production of seekers for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor, while a new framework agreement with Lockheed will accelerate production of its Precision Strike Missile, the Pentagon added.

The announcements come more than three weeks after Donald Trump and Israel launched a war on Iran.

by John-Paul Ford Rojas, Deputy Business Editor

Mystery traders may have made tens of millions of dollars in mere minutes after betting on markets just before a surprise social media post by Donald Trump raising hopes of peace with Iran.

The bets on oil prices and stock markets were made 15 minutes before the US President said there had been ‘productive’ talks – sparking furious allegations of insider trading.

Traders stood to make fortunes from the bets placed on Monday morning amid sharp criticism from politicians on both sides of the Atlantic of ‘repugnant’ behaviour and ‘mind-blowing corruption’.

Oil prices had been soaring and stock markets plunging as the Middle East conflict threatened to escalate.

But when Mr Trump declared on his Truth Social platform that there had been talks ‘regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities’, those moves went into reverse.

by Imogen Garfinkel, Senior Foreign News Reporter

Radical Iranian army chiefs bent on continuing the war will start assassinating their own higher-level officials if they continue to negotiate on Donald Trump’s terms, an expert has claimed.

Iran’s veteran Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and a host of other top Revolutionary Guards commanders have been killed in US-Israeli strikes, but the ruling system has maintained its ability to operate in the conflict that began on February 28.

Hooshang Amirahmadi, the founder and president of the American Iranian Council, said that while around 150 members of the regime’s top brass have been eliminated, a new generation of younger officers have entered the scene and are ‘increasingly in charge’.

With Khamenei killed in one of the first strikes of the war, the ‘vertical power structure’ of the Islamic Republic has collapsed into a ‘horizontal structure’, giving more military agency to hardline second rank officers who are resistant to peace.

‘If until yesterday Israel or America was killing these big generals, from now on I would not be surprised if some of these generals or these establishment powers could be eliminated by these second rank revolutionary officers, that de facto have taken power in their hands,’ Amirahmadi told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme.

Israel’s military says it has struck a submarine development facility in Isfahan, a day after its air force carried out a wave of strikes on the central Iran city.

‘As part of the strikes, the IDF, guided by Iraeli navy intelligence, targeted the Iranian terror regime’s Underwater Research Centre in Isfahan,’ the IDF said.

‘The centre is the only facility in Iran responsible for the design and development of submarines and support systems for the Iranian navy,’ it said, adding that the site also produced various types of ‘unmanned vessels’.

The military had announced on Tuesday it had conducted a ‘wide-scale wave of strikes’ in Isfahan.

Iran’s military has claimed it forced the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier to change position after firing cruise missiles at it.

In a statement, Iranian forces also reiterated it will target the warship again if it comes into range.

‘The Iranian Navy’s Qader cruise missiles (shore-based anti-ship missile) targeted the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier belonging to the US and forced it to change its position,’ the statement said.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has warned the Iran war presented a ‘far worse’ scenario than the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

‘This is not the same scenario as the illegal war in Iraq. We are facing something far worse. Much worse. With a potential impact that is far broader and far deeper,’ he told parliament.

‘This time, it’s an absurd and illegal war. A cruel one that sets us back from achieving our economic, social, and environmental goals.’

The Socialist premier has refused Washington’s requests to use Madrid’s military bases against Iran, despite US President Donald Trump’s threat to sever trade with Spain as a result.

Sanchez said the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 had failed to achieve its goals and instead made life worse for ordinary people, saying it led to a sharp increase in fuel and grocery prices, a migration crisis and jihadist attacks in Europe.

Gulf states have told the UN Human Rights Council they face an existential threat from Iran as they condemned Iranian attacks on their infrastructure.

The nearly month-long U.S.-Israeli war on Iran has sparked large-scale Iranian retaliation in the form of drone and missile strikes on energy and civilian infrastructure in Gulf countries, killing civilians and driving up oil prices.

‘We are seeing an existential threat to international and regional security. This aggressive approach is undermining international law and sovereignty,’ Kuwait’s ambassador Naser Abdullah H. M. Alhayen told the Geneva-based council.

Other Gulf states also denounced Iran’s actions which they said were designed to spread terror.

Countries at the 47-member council will vote on a motion condemning Iran’s strikes, asking Iran for reparation and asking the UN rights chief to monitor the situation.

Iran defended its actions, saying more than 1,500 civilians had been killed in the US-Israeli strikes so far.

‘We fight on behalf of all of you against an enemy that, if not restrained today, will be beyond containment tomorrow,’ said Ali Bahreini, Iran’s ambassador to the UN, in reference to Israel.

Pakistan has delivered a US proposal to Iran, Reuters is reporting.

A senior Iranian source told the outlet the plan is now with Tehran but the venue of any talks between the US and Iran to end the war has yet to be decided.

The source, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, did not disclose details of the proposal and whether it was Donald Trump’s 15-point plan to end the war.

The source also said Turkey was helping to find ways to end the way and ‘either Turkey or Pakistan are under consideration as the venue for such talks’.

This is the moment Israeli civilians ran for shelters today as Iran launched its latest strikes on Tel Aviv.

People living in Hadera, a city in Israel’s Haifa district, ran for cover as a missile struck an open area. Magen David Adom says no injuries have been reported.

It has been reported Iran may have been attempting to strike the Orot Rabin power plant, Israel’s largest power station.

The Israel Electric Corporation has said no damage was caused to its infrastructure following the attack.

Iran’s parliamentary speaker has warned Tehran is ‘closely monitoring’ any potential deployment of US troops.

It comes amid claims Donald Trump is considering sending paratroopers to Iran.

In a post written in English on X Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said: ‘We are closely monitoring all US movements in the region, especially troop deployments.

‘What the generals have broke, the soldiers can’t fix; instead, they will fall victim to Netanyahu’s delusions. Do not test our resolve to defend our land.’

Thousands of US Marines are said to be arriving in the Middle East as senior military officials consider deploying an Army paratrooper division to the region.